Douglas Scotney Poems

'I will not be the fool I would be
if I agreed that he
needed to be free more than me, '
as good as declared Shakespeare's Adriana,
...

The provisos given,
that the teacher is a she,
the student a he,
and that both are young,
...

Fines to be raised to a thousand.

'As the better multi-taskers,
women on the phone in the car risk less.
...

In the air but not flying -
an Inuk.
In a badarka -
the kayak of the Alaskan Innuit -
...

I thought I'd see
if I could strongly recall
just how green I once was
by going out to the poppies
...

'Flaught' rhymes with 'caught'.

A snow flaught is a flake.
A flaught of wind is a gust.
...

Dear Nephew,

I couldn't help hearing
a guy of little respect
...

What chance is there
that you will see
the rarely seen person
later in the day,
...

Because, for the French,

a babine is an animal's lip,
...

On the devil's staircase
going down to the beach
you don't count the number of steps;
but you do on the way back up.
...